Crystal Lake Busts A Beauty Pageant Tradition

January 28, 1993|By Michael A. Lev.

When the newly crowned Miss Crystal Lake proudly sashays before the crowd at South High School on April 3, she will have been judged on the scope of her intelligence and her social grace-but not the shape of her chest and buttocks.

In a decision that ranks in the annals of feminist history somewhere below suffrage but above the day Hillary Rodham Clinton baked cookies, pageant organizers say they have eliminated the swimsuit competition from the Miss Crystal Lake contest.

The decision was made partly because prancing around in a swimsuit isn't one of Miss Crystal Lake's duties. Instead, she is supposed to be fully clothed when she greets guests at Chamber of Commerce mixers and introduces the summer concert band series.

But Renee Simon, the pageant coordinator, said there was a larger issue at stake: Society's unhealthy overemphasis on women's appearance.

"We do judge on beauty, but we're more interested in the girl herself," Simon said. "We really want to focus on personality. We want a good, well-rounded individual who can represent the community."

The beauty pageant issue has been raised before. Last year, the Lake County chapter of the National Organization for Women unsuccessfully called for an end to that county fair's beauty contest, calling it harmful to women. The move called to mind the famous NOW demonstration at the 1968 Miss America pageant, where members threw bras in protest.

"I think it's degrading to call women forth into contests that say: Prove to me you're beautiful, prove to me you have poise, prove to me you have a good personality-and by the by, can you talk about anything?" said Gay Bruhn, president of Illinois NOW.

Ted Cohen, publisher of the International Directory of Pageants, said the world of beauty pageants has felt the pressure from feminist groups, although their response has been varied.

Some contests have dumped the name "beauty pageant" in See favor of "scholarship pageant," though they haven't necessarily abandoned swimsuits, he said. Cohen's own directory now uses the watered-down phrase "pageants that involve physical appearance."

Still, Cohen thinks the desire of beauty contests to be politically correct is generally misguided. What has happened, he said, is that judges have begun to place less emphasis on physical beauty and therefore pick winners who leave many of the audience members scratching their heads.

"I hate to call them dogs, but an awful lot of them you wouldn't call beauty queens," he said. "Let's face it. When you talk about beauty, you are talking about the whole picture. There's a lot of hypocrisy in all this. The public likes physical beauty."

Cohen said he views beauty pageants as an entertaining and non-threatening way to establish good role models.

"We all want to look good," he said. "Looking good is healthy."

Besides being a local contest, the Crystal Lake pageant is part of an Illinois State Fair competition. Miss Crystal Lake will compete to become Miss McHenry County, who then vies for the title of Illinois County Fair Queen.

Those contests still employ bathing suit competitions, which means Miss Crystal Lake will have to wear one at some point on the road to being crowned County Fair Queen.

Viola Suits Palumbo, Miss Illinois 1948, who started the Illinois County Fair Queen pageant, said she wasn't aware of other communities who have eliminated the swimsuit competition, although a few county contests now do them in private.

She said she likes the bathing suit competition because some contestants can be at a disadvantage in the evening gown segment if they don't have the money to spend on the most impressive clothes.

One contest that doesn't have a swimsuit competition is the Mrs. U.S.A., for married women over 26. Linda Wygon, executive director of Mrs. Illinois U.S.A., which is a qualifying round in the chase to become Mrs. U.S.A., said women vying to become Mrs. U.S.A. appear in one segment dressed in aerobic-wear.

"The public expects you to look like a queen, but this puts the emphasis not so much on dimensions and figures and details as it does on a healthy lifestyle," she said.

To become Miss Crystal Lake, contestants-who are ages 16 to 21-will sit for a preliminary interview. Then, on the night of the contest, they will give a speech about their sponsor, usually a retail merchant, and then, in an evening gown, respond extemporaneously to a question or two about friendship or perhaps world peace.

Simon said that eliminating the bathing suit competition has created more interest in this year's contest. While only three women applied several years ago and the winner became the person who applied first, this year there are 10 contestants.

"I know some people felt awkward about it," said 17-year-old Amy Cosman, a contestant this year. "I think appearance is important. But character and how you are is really more important."